


5 Valentine's Pepper and Tony didn't Spend as a Couple +1 They Spent as a Family

by Kizmet



Series: Chasing Ideal [13]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Backstory, Civil War Team Iron Man, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Long-Term Relationship(s), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Iron Man 1, to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2018-10-25 08:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10760793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: Pepper and Tony's relationship going through ups and downs over six valentines between 1994 and 2021 (and Rhodey keeps sneaking in somehow).





	1. February 2nd, 1994 - Heartless

**Author's Note:**

> I’m aware that Pepperony has been less a story line than it’s been a background fact of my series, even though it’s in the tags. Romance isn’t anywhere close to the focus of my main story, so for me, getting them both in the same place to work out their relationship issues is secondary to wanting Tony to be the one to make the 11th hour save during “Infinity War”. This story is attempting to correct the overall lack of Pepperony in the main storyline in a completely wrong time of the year, holiday themed sidestory, the +1 ending has significant spoilers and will be posted as an epilogue to the series.
> 
> I’m using the timeline established by IM1 which clearly states that Tony was less than 21 when his parents died. Direct quote from IM1 script: _“And at 17, he graduated summa cum laude from MIT. Then, the passing of a titan. Howard Stark's lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder, until, at age 21, the prodigal son returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries. With the keys to the kingdom, Tony ushers in a new era for his father's legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, satellite targeting.”_ Non-debatable: IM1 sets Howard and Maria’s death after Tony turned 17 but before he turned 21, because there was a GAP between Howard dying and Tony turning 21. Exactly when they die in that 4 year window is open to interpretation but to me the phrasing and delivery strongly implies that Howard died SHORTLY after Tony’s graduation and that Stane ran SI for a significant period of time before Tony took over at 21. So I set Howard and Maria’s death occurring the first December after Tony graduates because it gives Tony time to pull himself together after his parent’s death and prove himself to SI’s board of directors. 
> 
> 1970 is the less fixed of the two dates since 1991 shows up in two of the movies and I don’t know where 1970 comes from except it’s listed in Wiki. So I probably should have made Tony’s birth later instead of moving Howard and Maria’s death up, however, I’ve been consistently calculating Tony’s age using the 1970 date and will continue to make the date of Howard and Maria’s death slide to keep Tony’s age at the time of his parents’ death consistent with the information presented in IM1.

“Mr. Stark, you moved the D.C. presentations to the week of February twelfth,” Pepper said with a frown as she took a boxy laptop out of her shoulder bag and scrolled back and forth trying to fit the relevant part of Tony's schedule into the small screen.

“Too last minute, Ms. Potts?” Tony asked. “I heard Hammer’s old man gave him their new anti-personnel payload to sell and he'll be in D.C. on the thirteenth. I thought stealing his thunder might be fun.”

“Have you mentioned the change of plan to Mason yet?” Pepper asked. “She might take issue… It's not really my place but you two seem to click.”

“Oh we'll be broken up by then,” Tony said carelessly. “I don't do Valentines, it gives even sensible girls like Mason ideas. Although maybe we could wait, let our split go public on the fourteenth. Upstaging the gossip columns would be a nice ‘thanks for some good times’ present, do you think?”

“I don't think any girl appreciates being dumped on Valentine's,” Pepper said dryly. “Especially if it ends up splashed all over the tabloids.”

Tony waved off Pepper’s concerns, “Hardly dumping. Did you read the reviews on Mason’s latest single? Happily in love doesn't sell for her. She needs another break-up song, hence she needs a break-up, gives it authenticity. Beside, we've been an item long enough that the only other headlines I could give her would be a proposal or a pregnancy scare and Obie says the board gets antsy whenever I stay too far from Howard's model.”

Pepper shook her head and sighed. “And you don't have any feelings for Mason? I don't buy that, I’ve seen the two of you together.” 

“Mason’s dynamite in the sack, she looks good on my arm at society events and most importantly, all she’s after is publicity. Hell, she even makes those damn events tolerable, she's got a wicked mind and she likes sharing what she honestly thinks of everyone else there, especially if it’s rude. But feelings?” Tony’s nose crinkled up in distaste. “I convinced myself I was in relationship for love once, only the girl? She was in it for SI’s intellectual property. I’ve learned it’s best if everyone’s upfront and honest about what they’re getting, or expecting to get out of a relationship and anyone who says ‘love’ is either lying to you or lying to themselves. Then there’s Valentine’s Day, a commercial extravaganza excused by pretending that it’s all about love,” Tony sneered.

“Shall I keep Valentine’s in my own way, and let you keep it in yours?” Pepper asked with a laugh in her voice.

“Did you just call me Ebenezer Scrooge?” Tony demanded grinning back at her. “I suppose you had plans for that ridiculous holiday?” 

“Now that you mention it, my fiancé might have been taking me to a very nice restaurant,” Pepper said.

“Was that something I was supposed to be aware of? ‘Cause it's not on the company calendar. J.A.R.V.I.S. memorized those for me, on his own initiative too.” Tony smiled fondly, “He’s decided that keeping me from being a completely insensitive ass fits into his program parameters. I'm trying to be supportive, or at least not actively sabotage him, even if it's a hopeless endeavor.”

“No one’s completely hopeless,” Pepper teased. “And I'll go if you need me but a little more warning would have been appreciated, especially since I'm going to have to spend what’s left of this week reschedule everything that I had scheduled for next week before you decided you absolutely had to embarrass Justin Hammer… On top of having my holiday plans disrupted.”

“Give me the name of the restaurant, I'll get your reservation rescheduled for…” Tony hesitated, not knowing anything about Pepper’s fiancé or his availability. “Well, whenever. Or hey! I know, you could take the jet back to New York midday on the fourteenth and still make your dinner. I can do without you for half a day…” Tony trailed off with a leer. “ Or a two half-days. I mean it is Valentine’s and you said you had reservations at a nice restaurant, gotta make sure your fiancé’s expectations are met too. Make sure I don’t have anything scheduled before noon on the fifteenth and that’s fine.”

“You’re terrible Tony,” Pepper declared then added, “And who’s to say that I’m not looking forward to after dinner every bit as much as my fiancé?”

* * *

The presentation, deliberately scheduled to conflict with Hammer’s, went well. Tony gloated about the numbers he’d drawn. His reputation as a showman, as a genius, defeating Justin Hammer before either of them said a word. Pepper spent the morning of the fourteenth taking notes at the follow up meetings, the ‘we loved what you showed us but can you…’ bartering. Tony promised them he could make a missile tap-dance if that’s what they wanted, as long as they were willing to pay. Pepper made sure they a written record of everything Tony promised along with her observations about how much they seemed actually willing to spend on the bells and whistles. 

When the meetings broke for lunch Tony walked Pepper to the door, “Happy, give the lady a ride to the airport,” he told the new driver and bodyguard he’d come home with after a night of partying a month before. “She’s got a Valentine’s celebration not to be missed.”

“You got it boss,” Happy replied. On the drive to the airport, complete with D.C. congestion, Pepper got the story of how Happy stumbled into a kidnapping attempt that he’d mistaken for an uneven bar fight and came out of it with a job offer. 

At the terminal there was a bouquet waiting. “Nice flowers,” Happy commented. 

Pepper read the card, her lips tightened and her fingers went white as she crumpled the card. She picked up the bouquet as if it was a dead rat, walked across the lobby and dropped it in the trash can. “Too bad they weren’t for me,” she said. Happy raised an eyebrow. “According to the card they were for my fiancé’s _other_ girlfriend. I suppose he got the addresses got switched. I guess you’ll have company for the drive back after all.”

* * *

Tony opened his hotel room door and then glanced out the window. “Bad weather in New York, Ms. Potts?” he asked, “‘Cause I know you didn’t miss your plane. They don’t leave without you when you’re the only passenger.” 

Pepper shrugged, “Turns out I’d rather spend Valentine’s Day with my boss who pretends he doesn’t have a heart instead of my soon-to-be ex-fiancé who pretends that he does. I brought the R&D project proposals for next year, we were going to have to review them soon anyway.”

“Didn’t have any other plans,” Tony replied cautiously. Several hours later the stack of proposals was dealt with. Pepper’s three and a half inch heels were discarded beneath the couch and Tony’s tie was hanging on the back of a chair. When the last file was dealt with, the look Pepper cast at the door was despairing. 

“So… when Rhodey’s not deployed and not involved we usually spend the fourteenth watching bad sci-fi or bad war movies,” Tony said. “He says it’s the one night of the year when I’m guaranteed not to have a date, so anyway. Which sounds better to you: Dollman or Delta Force?”

“Which one has less romance?” Pepper asked dryly.

“Delta Force it is.” 

And if the movie was so terrible that Pepper had to hide her face against Tony’s shoulder at one point and didn’t look back at the screen until his shirt was soaked through and she was cried out neither of them mentioned it.


	2. February 12th, 2001 - Spiraling

“SI is continuing to send aid to assist Gujarat in rebuilding after the earthquake, all of SI’s employees in Ahmedabad have been accounted for. As scheduled, I called Ms. Morris to send her your regrets about missing your second date, I told her your presence had been required at the Tempe plant for an unforeseen emergency with the production line. SI’s financial performance for the next quarter is expected to be strong based on escalating violence in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the board was happy enough with the numbers that Mr. Stane was able to sooth ruffled feathers over your absence with minimum difficult,” Pepper read off her tablet as she stepped around Tony’s legs where they stuck out from beneath the car he was working on. She frowned at the glass and empty bottle on the table. “And Colonel Rhodes has an appointment with you tomorrow at six.” 

“Cancel it,” Tony said. “He just wants to bitch about me pulling the plug on the Redwing project.”

“We did what?!” Pepper exclaimed.

“Don't worry about it,” Tony said. “I talked to Obie, he'll reassign the personnel or something. I'll make a bigger bomb to get the generals off our backs. Everything's fine!” As he spoke Tony shoved himself out from under the car. He grabbed the bottle then tossed it in the trash when he noticed that it was empty and stomped over to his liquor cabinet. “Dum-E? Have you been using my scotch as lubricant again?” Tony demanded waving another empty bottle in the direction of his helper bot. “I have told you before: This crap is NOT good for you.”

Dum-E squealed in protest.

“Well, if you say you haven’t,” Tony sighed. 

“I rather wish that he had disposed of it Sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. interjected in a disapproving tone.

“Tony, you didn’t notice how much you’d drank?” Pepper asked with worried disapproval.

“I’ve been down here for days,” Tony waved it off. “The project’s no problem, except it was Rhodey sponsoring it. Why don’t you send him one of the cars with my apologies, he’s always liked the green Maserati.”

* * *

“What? You’re blowing me off now Tones?”

Tony tipped the last of his drink back as he rolled his eyes. “I thought I told Pepper to cancel our meeting.”

“Forget the meeting and don’t send me any more cars. It’s hard enough not to get accused of taking bribes given the Christmas and birthday presents. I’m here for the dinner simmering on your stove,” Rhodes replied. “Ms. Potts might have mentioned that you’ve been down here long enough that you’d be growing mold if your blood wasn’t pickled, or something to that effect.”

“Stove? Since when do I have a… Well I guess it only makes sense that there’s a kitchen somewhere in this place. I don’t think I’ve ever been there. How is there dinner in this theoretical kitchen that I suppose I have,” Tony rambled.

“Since I cooked it,” Rhodes stated. “Called Mama for her spaghetti recipe.” 

Tony stood up, swaying just a bit and started toward the stairs. “Tattle-tale,” he groused, shoving Rhodes lightly as he walked past him. “Which way is the kitchen?”

“You have no basis for that accusation,” Rhodes insisted.

“You’re claiming that your mama handed out that recipe without asking who you were cooking for?” Tony replied. “And that she didn’t wring every last detail about why you felt the need to cook for me out of you?”

Rhodes grimaced, “Your Ms. Potts might be a gem but she wasn’t around for the last time. I promised Mama a call from you after dinner. If she’s not satisfied I’ve got orders to kidnap you.”

“I’ve got until after dinner?” Tony asked warily.

“As if you can fake her out on an hour’s recovery time,” Rhodes scoffed. “You my friend, are screwed.”

_Ninety-eight minutes later:_

“Okay, either the number of empties I saw downstairs was misleading or I’ve got to decide whether I’m impressed or terrified by your tolerance,” Rhodes said. 

Tony smirked. 

“But seriously, this isn’t good for you Tones,” Rhodes sighed. “I mean, yeah I’m disappointed about the Redwing Program but even you had to find a technical challenge you couldn’t beat eventually. I’m only mad that you’ve been covering it up. R&D not getting the results you want, that’s life. If you knew the answer ahead of time it’d be a high school lab not research. Three years of reports and not a single clue that you’d hit a snag? How’m I gonna explain that?”

“Whatever you say Platypus,” Tony sighed reaching for a beer, after a moment’s consideration he tossed a second one in Rhodes’ direction. 

Rhodes groaned, “Tones, you’re totally incorrigible! It’d serve you right if I called Mama back right this minute.” But he popped the top on the beer.

* * *

On the evening of the fourteenth Pepper made her way down to Tony’s lab carrying several DVD boxes. “So I thought, why not broaden our horizons and add lousy horror movies to the list of allowed movies?”

Tony grabbed a rag and made and effort to wipe the grease off his hands and face, “Ms. Potts, that’s a sacrilege!” he exclaimed. “The best horror movies are the crappy ones, doesn’t everyone know that? I thought you and… um… the guy from Legal were a thing?”

Pepper shrugged in lieu of admitting she’d fabricated an ill grandmother to get out of a Valentine’s Day date. “J.A.R.V.I.S. could you start the popcorn?”

“Of course Ms. Potts,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied warmly. 

Pepper started helping Tony close down his lab, powering down equipment while he saved files and returned his precision hand tools to their docking stations. “What really happened with the Redwing Project?” Pepper asked. “Colonel Rhodes might have missed it but you’ve had projects fail before. You usually deflect attention with a flashy new project and not one suggested by Obadiah Stane. ‘It’s not that I can’t do it, I’m just distracted by this new shiney.’ That’s your M.O. when something’s not working out.”

“Rhodey’s got no clue, thinks he’s playing against me, but Redwing has been out-flying him a third of the time in simulations since 1999,” Tony said. “And Rhodey’s in the top ten percent of Air Force and Navy pilots.”

“So what’s the problem?” Pepper asked. “Why can a project you finished two years ago?” 

“Cost-benefit analysis,” Tony replied. He spun around on his chair to grab an intricately patterned wafer that was laying on his work table and shoved it at Pepper. “Why put missiles on a smart drone when you can just put a microprocessor in each drone and pack it with explosives? You know how many computers I can make from this one wafer? One trip through the process? Eight thousand sixty-four. Barely a bump on the price-tag for me to take them from guided missile to one that thinks… All you need is a copy of my program, of Redwing.”

“I don’t get it, what’s problem?” Pepper asked.

“They’re going to copy Redwing, put him in a bomb and send him on one kamikaze mission after another. They’re going to order him to kill himself over and over and over again. Because he’s computer program not a real person and that makes it all okay,” Tony ranted.

“But it would eliminate the need for human pilots,” Pepper pointed out.

Tony threw the wafer on the floor, shattering it. “Fine, be like that,” he snapped. “You don’t get why that’s wrong, well how about this: Hal, Skynet, the Matrix. Sentient beings, artificial or not want to survive, it’s THE MOST basic drive. I make an artificial intelligence to die for us, over and over again, and I guarantee that it WILL turn on us, who wouldn’t? So after three years, I had to tell Rhodey, my Rhodey, screw it but he can’t have Redwing.” 

Pepper flinched away from the spray of sharp-edged silicon slivers. “Couldn’t you make Redwing less intelligent? Or have it pilot remotely?”

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do for the last two years?” Tony demanded. “The government doesn’t want a program that can remotely pilot drones. The idiots would rather trust human judgement, the only reason they wanted Redwing in the first place was to have an onsite intelligence controlling the drone. If I make Redwing smart enough to be trusted to blow up the right target on his own recognizance I have to make him smart enough to figure out where he ranks with humans. I tell Rhodey why he can’t have Redwing… Forget Rhodey, his mama’s gonna hate me but the military at least tries to protect the lives of their pilots.”

“I’m... “ Pepper trailed off, reluctant to even suggest that Tony’s friend or his friend’s mother would understand Tony’s need to protect his AI when it could put an end to people like Rhodes needing to risk their lives. “I'm about done here, you?”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed switching tracks gratefully. “Popcorn’s probably just about ready too. No Horror,” he reiterated, “Bad Horror is pretty much a guaranteed cult classic, you philistine.”

“If you say so,” Pepper agreed dubiously as she retrieved the popcorn from a built in wall unit in Tony’s home theatre. “Thank you, J.A.R.V.I.S.”

“Buttered and salted to your specifications,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

“Traitor,” Tony groused. He headed for the bar while Pepper made herself comfortable on one end of the couch.

“I believe it is appropriate to reward good manners sir.”

“You want a drink?” Tony asked. “Beer’s the only thing that really pairs with popcorn, but Rhodey drank me out last night and J.A.R.V.I.S. forgot to restock.”

“Tones!” Rhodes called out holding up a case of beer as he let himself in. Then he spotted the back of Pepper’s head and cut himself off so quickly that Tony worried he might have swallowed his tongue.

“No need to panic Platypus,” Tony said. “I haven’t been replaced by aliens or anything. I can’t believe it’s been seven years and this is the first time you and Pepper have managed to be free and available on the same year. She is the woman who I trust to show up as a friend and mean it.”

“Tony, that’s just sexist,” Pepper scolded. “Remember that I’ve kicked out two guys you picked up as well as several dozen girls.”

Rhodes laughed, “Oh yeah, she can stay.”


	3. February 14th, 2010 - Poisoned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Valentine's Day between IM1 and IM2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I'm trying to protect the people I've put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?" from IM1 is another of those lines that seems a little odd when you think about it too much. Tony presumes that because he's had an experience that makes him opposed to the Defense Industry, Pepper not only shares his epiphany but was always and only a part of that industry to support him. It actually is an example of Tony being egotistical (but the appeal works so it might be saying something about Pepper’s priorities), much more so than him getting fed up with Steve's insistence that people get out of his way or get trampled at Leipzig.

“Tony, you need to review the modified defense contract yesterday,” Pepper gritted her teeth at the unpleasant way her voice rose as she tried to be heard over the sound of wind in the background. The sound gave away that Tony was calling from within Iron Man. 

“If you think it’s okay, just forge my name and call it good,” Tony replied carelessly.

“No! Pepper exclaimed. “Tony I am not going to forge your name on a military contract you haven’t even read! They wouldn’t agree to just taking at cost body armor in exchange for letting SI not deliver the missile we promised. All they’re willing to give me for the body armor is that they’ll cancel all missile contracts that are over a year out- But! And this is a big one, they want a last time buy to ensure that the military’s supply chain isn’t disrupted. They’ll let you quit the weapons business in twelve months without legal repercussions if over the next twelve months you deliver a hundred and fifty percent of SI’s normal yield.”

“And you know that’s not acceptable,” Tony said. “So I know that you negotiated a better deal or you wouldn’t be harassing me with this.”

Pepper took a deep breath, “Guidance systems, we continue making guidance systems for at least five years, at a ten percent margin, and we supply three thousand units of body armor a month, SI’s best, for the next ten years at cost. In return we will be released from all missile contracts effective as soon as the new contract is signed.” 

“Guidance systems…” Tony trailed off for a few moments. “I worked on those for Rhodey, because I hated seeing him feeling guilty over shitty tech. Yeah, okay, I’m good with that, with going on making those. So Pepper, what other work am I neglecting? You’ve got my undivided attention for… J.A.R.V.I.S. eta in Tajikistan?”

“Tajikistan, why are you going-”

“Local warlord with a stash of my weapons, why else?” Tony replied. “And as long as I’m there I’ll get a good scan of the ruling party’s stronghold and make sure they don’t have anything of mine laying around. Well, actually, the official government certainly wouldn’t have black market weapons, because SI couldn’t have sold to anyone in this part of the world legally, so any SI weapons I find definitely belong to that pesky warlord I’m sure everyone agrees with that. And it’s a good thing for everyone if those missiles that can’t legally exist around here just stopped existing, right?”

“Tony!”

“Don’t worry Pepper, I’ve already been on the phone with their Prime Minister about how great it would be if the insurgents didn’t have access to SI weaponry and he personally assures me, and I’ve got that recorded, that no legitimate military forces in his country would be using my weapons because that would clearly be illegal.

“So for the next... “

“Three hours to Gorno-Badakhshan, sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. filled in.

“For the next three hours, I’ve got nothing better to do than listen to your lovely voice summarizing what’s actually in all those unsightly stacks of dead trees that keep appearing on my desk,” Tony finished without missing a beat.

“Tony!” Pepper groaned but then she began. “There’s several more individuals with clean energy proposals. Three of them are competing technologies geared toward the automotive industry we’re going to have to pick one to back.”

“Why not back them all, give them a fair chance to demonstrate that they’ve got the right stuff…” 

The two of them continued talking business as Iron Man blasted toward his latest mission. “Sir, we are approaching the border,” J.A.R.V.I.S. broke in. 

“Well, duty calls,” Tony said cheerfully. “Oh and about our yearly movie night…”

“Not this year,” Pepper said then quickly added, “I’m not seeing anyone but we’re going to have to find someone to partner with to make the guidance system deal work, I’m going out on a limb and assuming that you don’t want SI equipment of any sort going into HammerTech if avoidable and they are positioned to pick up the bulk of the contracts we drop. I’m going to have to find someone else and investigate them to make sure they’re not actually worse. I’m insanely busy Tony, and having to verbally summarize everything I sent to you in writing to review because you won’t actually look at your inbox isn’t helping.”

“I was just going to say that I probably won’t be back until well into the technically tomorrow morning timeframe. You and Rhodey should start without me. Or maybe finish without me. Nothing to worry about, this bunch are penny-ante, probably had to steal a bunch of kids’ piggy banks to scrape together the funds to get the crap in the first place and don’t worry about the mission but the flight time to Central Asia and back is a bitch even in the suit so…”

“So you’re standing me up to go play hero again?” Pepper asked wryly

“You’re never going to let me live that down,” Tony groused. “And Rhodey’s going to be there, so not a date. He’s like the worst no-fun chaperone ever, believe me. Totally not a date with Rhodey-bear on the premise. Besides it’s Valentines and you know I don’t date on Valentines. It’d just be our normal movie night. And why am I the one that has to apologize for not getting back to that- to us- I mean I was stopping terrorists, saving innocent lives. Aren’t you, like, required to forgive moments blown by superheroics? You said you’re working, no date in sight this year?”

“When would I have time to date?” Pepper groaned. “I barely have time to breathe between meetings. Tony, READ the documents I send you… Be careful, please.”

“I’m always careful.”

“You’re a bold faced liar is what you are Tony Stark,” Pepper sighed. “J.A.R.V.I.S., please call me so I don’t spend the whole night wondering if he’s lying in a puddle of blood somewhere?”

“Of course, Ms. Potts. Shall I make that a standing request?”

* * *

The next day Pepper glanced at the name on her phone’s screen before answering, “Colonel Rhodes, what can I do for you?”

“To start with, tell me the reason why I ended up spending Valentine’s Day sitting in Tony’s movie theatre all by my lonesome is what I hope it is,” Rhodey replied.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize you’d showed,” Pepper said. “I was working late and Tony, well, there’s a few less stray SI missile in the world this morning. You didn’t see him because there was some damage to one of the flight stabilizers, he ended up spending the night at the SI plant in India to make repairs. Thank God, that was the worst of it this time.” 

“Iron Man,” Rhodey groaned. “Pepper, I count on you to be my ally in talking Tony out of the crazy. But instead you’re busting your ass to enable him, I know it’s you doing most of the work to renegotiate all of SI’s government contracts.”

“It’s his company,” Pepper said. “If Tony wants SI out of the business of making missiles it’s my job to help him do that.”

“Don’t feed me that bullshit,” Rhodes replied. “I don’t know what Tony’s problem is, acting like the military and the government are suddenly his enemies, but he needs to get over it. They aren’t going to let him keep on running around blowing shit up like he has been doing.”

“Tony’s problem is shrapnel from one of the missiles SI made so close to his heart that it can’t be surgically removed,” Pepper snapped. “And the government is going to keep letting him ‘run around’ as Iron Man as long as it serves their interests.”

“It's vigilantism on an international scale,” Rhodes objected.

“You've seen the results of Tony and I’s investigation,” Pepper said. “Stane started selling illegally in the eighties.”

“Yeah,” Rhodes grimaced. “Almost got caught to but his middleman was, well, my predecessor a couple times removed. There was no way to prove that Stane knew there was anything underhanded going on and Howard Stark vouched for him.”

Pepper nodded, “Stane kept right on going, hiding behind Tony’s dad’s reputation,” she looked way, “not to mention Howard Stark’s knowledge of where all the bodies were buried. You’ve seen the reports James, seen the breadth and depth of the distribution network Stane had established over the years. There have been dozens of arrests, SI personnel, military and government personnel, all to try to clean house. We’re making good progress taking down Stane’s network but his people didn’t have an agenda beyond making money. They sold to anyone willing and able to pay. I’d think you’d be aware of the logistical nightmare of trying to recover all the SI tech on the black market or in the hands of terrorists. We are talking about getting dozens of countries to cooperate to even get eighty percent of the stuff out there back. Legally, there’s no way to put that genie back in the bottle… But Iron Man sidesteps all the red tape by being outside the law. He’s got popular support, Tony knows how to play a crowd and Iron Man is the one place where he is on his game.”

“Okay! They’re willing to let it go for now,” Rhodes broke in. “But you’re not working with these people. Short-term they’ll use Tony to get things accomplished that they couldn’t otherwise. Long-term… They’re putting a case together to use against Tony, because it’s not just about Iron Man. Tony ticked off a lot of his normal support base in the government by stopping SI’s weapon production and even I don’t see how what Stane did justifies turning on the government and the military.”

“Do you really believe I like this Iron Man thing?” Pepper demanded. “I hate it! I hate seeing Tony constantly coming home hurt. We’re both developing make-up skills only a battered spouse would envy because Tony can’t sell the Invincible Iron Man if he’s got visible injuries every time he’s on camera. I know what Tony’s doing; stopping weapons production; certainly isn’t the best thing for the military. I know exactly how much better SI products are than our nearest competitor, I compiled the reports for ten years. I’ve been subjected to the full court patriotism appeal on a regular basis ever since Tony’s post-Afghanistan press conference, so please spare me the spiel on how we’re weakening the United States by refusing to fulfill our contracts.”

“Pepper, I know you’re the one doing all the work to renegotiate those contracts,” Rhodey repeated. 

“And Tony’s scattered on the clean energy initiative,” Pepper agreed. “I don’t think he even realizes that this isn’t his normal ‘consume everything about a new field, distill it down to a breakthrough,’ mode of jumping off the deep end.”

“So why are you trying to make it work?” Rhodes demanded. “I know you better than to think that you would have stayed in Defense Contracting for a paycheck-”

“Or even for Tony?” Pepper interjected.

“-If you had moral reservations about the industry. Without you supporting this, this pipe dream, Tony would realize how ridiculous he’s being and he’d get over it,” Rhodes finished. 

“If you honestly believe that you’ve only been talking at Tony since he got back, you haven’t been talking to him,” Pepper said. “He isn’t going to get over it. Getting SI out of the weapons’ business might not be the best thing for SI or for U.S. military, but it’s the best thing for Tony. Do you seriously think Tony’s going to be able to design another missile without remembering what it felt like to be on the wrong side of one?”

“Pepper-” 

“You know, you’re right James, if I thought there was something wrong with being a part of this industry I wouldn’t be here but at the same time you need to realize that Defense Contract work is a just a job for me, it’s not a calling. I like working with Tony. I like the challenge of making his impossible schedule work. I like being able to give my boss my honest opinion and have it appreciated and listened to, even when his eyes do stray to my hem line. I like Tony. And if he needs SI to not make weapons anymore, that’s a challenge I’m willing to take on so that when he gets this superhero thing out of his system he can stand to go back to work.”

“He drinking again?” Rhodes asked. 

“If you want to count the nasty green stuff the ‘bots have taken to making for him,” Pepper said. “I think it’s supposed to be some sort of health drink- Well, healthy now that we’ve all had a talk with Dum-E about how motor oil is not good for Tony, Arc Reactor notwithstanding. And yes, I know, Tony being health conscious is a sign the world’s ending.”

“Why couldn’t the two of you just ditched me to spend a romantic Valentine’s together?” Rhodey complained.

“I don’t know if movie night’s going to be a thing much longer,” Pepper said quietly. “I don’t have a clue what Tony and I are supposed to be these days but one thing we are not is ‘just friends’.”


	4. February 14th, 2013 - Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back steps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, according to the Wiki timeline IM3 happens in December 2012, so there’s no Valentine's Day between Avengers and IM3. But the main timeline setting comment that I remember is Tony asking Maya Hansen “Please don’t tell me there’s a 12-year-old kid waiting in the car that I’ve never met.” and Maya replies “He’s 13.” Well obviously, no kid but the exchange does give two possible timelines: If Tony had gotten her pregnant January of 2000, the hypothetical kid would have been born in September and would be 12 in December 2012, but if the hypothetical kid is 13 then it’s 2013. Both Maya and Tony are good at math, I’ll assume that they both know the current date but Tony was drunk that night and more likely to be having trouble remembering if they were ushering 2000 in or out… Which all amounts to a long winded excuse as to why it’s at least plausible to set IM3 in Dec of 2013 instead of 2012 so that I’ve got a Valentine's between the two movies to play with.

“Tony,” Pepper groaned. “I told you I can’t do this. I can’t handle watching you nearly die on every time I turn around.”

“What?” Tony asked. Down in his lab he reflexive gestured as he spoke then winced and decided he was glad it was a phone call and Pepper couldn’t see evidence of his latest injury. “It’s Valentine’s Day, you said we’d still be friends and we haven’t done Valentine’s Day since 2009 precisely because we’ve been together and I don’t do dates on the fourteenth of February so if we’re back to just friends we should do Valentine’s Day. I mean correct me if I’m wrong but that’s what ‘we’ll still be friends’ means right? We go back to doing the stuff we did together before we started dating.”

“Will Rhodey be there?” Pepper broke into Tony’s verbal barrage.

“Rhodey? Yeah, definitely, Rhodey will be here. Just like old times, because I didn’t mess up us being friends by dating you, right?” 

“Alright,” Pepper sighed. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“See ya,” Tony said a moment before she disconnected. Then, “J.A.R.V.I.S., call Rhodey.”

“Sir, if I may ask, what do you plan to do if Colonel Rhodes does have plans for tonight?” J.A.R.V.I.S asked.

Tony thought for a moment, “Threaten to withhold the next round of upgrades for War Machine and possibly to crash his date if he has one… That’s not too extreme is it?”

“For you, sir?” J.A.R.V.I.S asked dryly. “A model of restraint.

* * *

Pepper ran into Rhodey juggling several grocery bags while trying to get the front door at the Malibu house open. “Hey,” she said as she reached around him to grab the doorknob.

“You actually showed,” Rhodey said disapprovingly. “I kept the date clear this year to deal with Tony post-break-up. So am I here as a chaperone or a third wheel?”

“How about we’re all here as friends,” Tony said as he came upstairs from the lab. Then his gaze focused on the grocery bags. “You brought the grub! Great, let’s get this party started. I’ve asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to pre-load a selection of the most panned films for our mocking pleasure.” He ignored the way Rhodey was still frowning at Pepper. “Who’s with me on ‘Battlefield Earth’? The reviews are stunningly bad.” At a gesture from Tony the trailer started playing. 

After a moment Pepper shook her head, “Okay, I have to ask: The thing on everyone’s nose? Why? Just why?

“There’s the spirit,” Tony said grinning but Rhodes just glared at her.

Pepper plucked one of the grocery bags out of Rhodey’s arms. “I’ll just put this in bowls,” she said.

Rhodey stared after her, mouth hanging open.

“Go, say whatever you have to say to her,” Tony ordered. Then his eyes narrowed, “But remember, you don’t actually have a say in how the two of us handle not dating.” 

“I think her reasons for breaking up with you were a load of shit,” Rhodey said flatly. He hesitated a moment longer then went after Pepper. 

Once the door swung shut Tony gingerly lowered himself onto the couch. He kept one hand pressed to his side with a pained expression as he tried to get comfortable.

Rhodey found Pepper in the kitchen dumping the carmel corn into a bowl and shifting the veggie platter from the grocery store’s plastic tray onto china. While J.A.R.V.I.S. popped more corn for them. “You’d think you were the one born to wealth rather than Tony,” Rhodes commented.

“I thought you’d appreciate a chance to finish the conversation Tony interrupted,” Pepper said as she started spooning dip into a bowl.

Rhodes was silent for a moment. “Okay, I’m confused: You don’t want to be with Tony because it’s too stressful, dating Iron Man, but here you are.”

“I was going to keep my distance for awhile,” Pepper admitted. “Re-establish some perspective but I truly don’t want to lose him as a friend. Tony asked me to prove I meant that, so here I am.” 

“I’m still not happy with you,” Rhodes declared as he took one of the trays and headed back toward the theater where he put it down on the coffee table before dropping onto the other end of Tony’s couch leaving Pepper to take the armchair.

“Caramel on movie popcorn is a sacrilege,” Tony announced. He turned pleading eyes on Pepper, “Pass me the salted and buttered stuff, could you?” 

Pepper rolled her eyes but leaned over to grab the bowl of other bowl of popcorn and handed it to Tony, “You’d better share after that,” she said.

“Sirs, Ma’am, I have also taken the liberty of preparing some plain popcorn,” J.A.R.V.I.S. interjected. “Should anyone succumb to the impulse to throw it at the screen I feel it would be appreciated if you used that. I have observed it is much easier to remove from the carpet afterwards.”

As the movie progressed the initial tension melted into the comfort of long familiarity and if Tony got quieter as the movie progressed it wasn’t that notable because Rhodey and Pepper had begun to carrying their share of the conversation. Besides, humans going from ‘What’s a wheel?’ to flying Harriers in five minutes was definitely an area where Rhodey got first dibs on mocking. But when the planet destroying bomb went off without commentary from Tony it caught both Pepper and Rhodey’s attention. “He fell asleep?” Rhodey laughed softly, “I’m definitely mocking him about showing his age for the next year, at minimum.” 

Rhodey reached over to shake Tony awake, “Hey, you’ll get a crick-” Rhodey broke off abruptly when his hand touched Tony’s arm. He reached up to check Tony’s pulse. “J.A.R.V.I.S. call an ambulance. Pepper get a blanket,” Rhodey ordered as he laid Tony flat and swung his feet up onto the arm of the couch.

“W-What’s-” Pepper stammered, the color draining from her face.

“Get the damn blanket!” Rhodes snapped. “He’s in shock. J.A.R.V.I.S. any recent battles?” he asked as he carefully pulled Tony’s shirt up looking for any evidence of injuries. He cursed at the sight of a dark purple bruise spreading from around the arc reactor.

“There was an explosion in the lab earlier today,” J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded distressed. “I failed to recognize it as a significant injury. Ambulance is enroute.”

Pepper returned. She held out a blanket with a glassy look in her eyes. Rhodey spread it over Tony. “Jay, send information on explosion, where was the impact, what was the force. God, just send the video ahead to the hospital, it might save some time figuring out what the damage is.”

Tony’s forehead crinkled. “Hey, what’s going on?” he slurred.

“Thank fuck,” Rhodes sighed. “You’re bleeding internally, you idiot. You didn’t think maybe mentioning you were hurt took precedence over the goddamn movie?” 

“Hnn, ‘s just a bruise Sourpatch,” Tony mumbled.

“Yeah, we’ll just see what the paramedics have to say about that,” Rhodey replied.

“Y’ didn’t,” Tony complained.

“Oh yes I absolutely did,” Rhodey replied. He heard Pepper letting the paramedics in and a moment later they descended on Tony. “I’m riding in the ambulance,” Rhodey informed them in a tone that didn’t invite questions. 

As the paramedics secured Tony to a stretcher and started an IV Rhodey detoured to Tony’s office where he retrieved a pistol from the wall safe. There were enough reasons not to leave Tony alone and defenseless among strangers that Rhodes almost wished he had War Machine at hand. Then he pull a jacket on over the holster and caught up with the paramedics as Tony was loaded into the ambulance. Rhodey paused in the door of the house, “J.A.R.V.I.S., does Pepper still have Tony’s power of attorney?”

“That is correct.” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied then hesitated. “I do not believe Ms. Potts should drive herself.”

“Hell,” Rhodey growled. “I can’t leave Tony alone but we need her and they won’t take both of us. Can you do something to switch power of attorney to me?”

“I summoned Mr. Hogan immediately after the ambulance,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. “Ms Potts should be no more than ten minutes behind you.”

“Good thinking,” Rhodey said and went out to climb into the ambulance.

* * *

After. After the ambulance ride. After several transfusions to get enough blood into Tony’s veins to keep his heart pumping. After CT scans and ultrasounds to determine the source of the bleeding. After hours of surgery to repair the blood vessels damaged by the arc reactor shifting in Tony’s chest when the explosion threw him into a wall. After it was determined that Tony had been dehydration and suffering from low blood sugar even before the injury. After his condition was finally declared stable. After the sun had risen on a new day.

“My turn to get the coffee,” Rhodey told Happy and stumbled off in the direction of the cafeteria. He turned the corner just as the door to the women’s restroom opened and saw Pepper sitting on the floor beneath the sinks, her head in her hands. 

The woman who’d just walked in stopped to kneel beside Pepper. Rhodey caught the door before it could close, as he got closer he heard Pepper whispering, “I can’t do this,” over and over again. 

“I got it,” he told the woman. “Pepper?”

At his voice Pepper looked up, “Sorry,” she said. 

Rhodey grimaced. “Not your fault,” he sighed. “You held it together long enough.”

“By the skin of my teeth. And J.A.R.V.I.S. wouldn’t let me drive, had to wait for Happy, when Tony needed me here,” Pepper choked out. “I can’t do this again, he promised.” 

“It’s okay. Tony’s going to be okay.” Rhodes sighed, “He probably didn’t even know it was serious.”

“It wasn’t even- Explosion in the lab. There were always- “

“He blew up our dorm room at MIT,” Rhodey said. “And from the stories I heard that was far from the first time one of his projects when up in flames.”

Pepper glared at him, “Not helping!”

Rhodey shrugged, “It’s the truth. He’s never going to be safe. Even if you could talk him into giving up Iron Man, he’s still Tony. And no one wants to be cocooned in bubble wrap. I’ve got some contacts, military spouses support groups, it might help.” 

Then he sighed, “I’m sorry too. I heard what you said after Vanko, that you physically couldn’t handle the stress, I should have been listening. I still don’t think running away’s going to help. ‘Specially not when you don’t actually leave.”

* * *

Tony groaned and blinked slowly as the sinking sun caught his face on the evening of the sixteenth. He smiled groggily when he noticed Pepper’s head pillowed on their joined hands. “So, um, not a party?” he asked trying to think past the medication to sort out exactly what he’d done to land himself in a hospital. 

Pepper yawned and tried to work a kink out of her neck, “You blew-up your lab.”

“Totally Dum-E’s fault,” Tony said reflexively. Then his eyes widened. “Shit! Gimme my phone, he’s gotta be going nuts. I didn’t think I was really hurt.”

“I’m not sure where yours is,” Pepper said as she handed over her phone.

Tony dialed his own number, “Jay, I need to talk to Dum-E…”

Pepper leaned her head against wall and watched Tony trying to assure his guilt-strickened robot that he was fine and the explosion really had been his own fault with a faint smile as Tony’s voice calmed the anxiety that had been clawing at her mind for the previous forty-eight hours. 

“I’m moving in,” she said once Tony finished comforting Dum-E.

“What? But I thought-”

“I don’t want you going home alone,” Pepper said. “You would have bled out if we- if Rhodey hadn’t been there. I want to make you promise it wouldn’t ever happen again but-”

“But you know me,” Tony said with a wry smile.

Pepper nodded, “There’s going to be a next time and I’m not going to be so useless.”

“So, um, can I take this to mean we’re together again?” Tony asked hopefully. “‘Cause you don’t move in with ‘just-”

Pepper silenced him by leaning over and pressing her lips to his.


	5. February 13th, 2015 - Toxic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Avengers mission, not long before AoU.

“Pepper, don’t make any plans for tomorrow,” Tony told Pepper’s voice mail as he and Dum-E double checked the first of Clint’s new batch of arrows for defects. “The Avengers have a mission but I’ll be home. It should be simple data gathering.” He sat up and stretched. “Okay J.A.R.V.I.S. the arrow looks good, fabricate a couple dozen, make sure Katniss has a full quiver waiting in the armory. We’re wheels up at the crack of dawn and you know how Capsicle is about punctuality.”

“Of course sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied. 

“Then bring up the specs on that wearable glucose monitor Pepper’s been asking for, might as well get some real work done while we wait,” Tony said. 

“Sir, might I remind you that Ms. Hill also requires briefing about the impending mission?” J.A.R.V.I.S. asked politely.

“Shit, Cap hasn’t talked to her yet? Well, I guess technically, she is my employee. Put her on the speakerphone.” 

A few moments later Maria answered her phone with a crisp, “Agent Hill.”

“Maria, light of my life,” Tony gushed. “Have I mentioned that you and a few of your favorite agents are invited on a sightseeing trip to exotic Montana? Plane leaves first thing in the morning.”

“Why and why didn’t I know sooner?” Maria demanded. 

“Because we only just learned about, it’s fresh from Maximum Ride,” Tony frowned to himself, Sam had been and gone several days back. So why had Steve waited to inform the team until the last minute? “An abandoned HYDRA base but it might have some leads as to where they are now. We’re bringing the whole team after the traps Steve and Nat ran into the last time out.” 

Maria sighed, “At least it’s in the U.S., I’ll have us cleared for an operation before morning. But you owe me coffee, Stark, the good stuff.” 

“J.A.R.V.I.S. and I can handle the hacking but I could use some extra eyes and hands to go through any antiquated files,” Tony continued. “I think I might be allergic to printed media.”

“Papyrophobia, we’ll add it to the laundry list of mental issues in your file,” Maria said with excessive solemnity.

“You think that would get me off the hook with Pepper and her reams of forms?” Tony asked.

“Let me think about it,” Maria paused for a very deliberate second. “Nope, not a chance.”

Tony laughed, “I’ll see you in the morning, with coffee. Sulawesi Toraja Coffee work for you?”

“I don’t have a clue what that is but if you’re buying I’ll be delighted to give it a try,” Maria replied.

The next morning Steve covered a moment of surprise when he saw Maria Hill and two other agents waiting for the Avengers in the Quinjet’s hangar chatting with Nat and Clint. “Tony brought them in to help him with the data retrieval,” Natasha explained as she passed Steve to board the jet. 

Tony arrived a few moments later, in armor excluded his helmet, with a tray of coffee cups that he promptly handed over to the agents, “For keeping you up all night,” he said. “I assume you got all the clearances?”

Maria grabbed one of the cups and held it beneath her nose savoring the aroma and the warmth of the cup. “You’re forgiven for the last minute request, this time anyway, Stark.”

Steve frowned. “You knew the mission was first thing in the morning,” he said quietly to Tony once they were in the air. “You should have made sure the people you brought into this were fresh for it instead of keeping them up doing you favors.”

“Eight hours is a myth perpetrated by geriatrics like you Cap,” Tony said waving off the criticism. 

Less than an hour later the quinjet touched down on an expanse of cracked, weed-infested concrete near a granary on the outskirts of Fort Benton, Montana. “There’s the entryway, just like Sam said,” Steve guided them toward an old, abandoned, silo that looked like it had last been used when ox-drawn wagons had been in fashion.

Tony used his sensors to scan the ground beneath them, “I’m getting more heat signatures than an abandoned base warrants.” 

Steve frowned, “Sam wouldn’t give us bad intel.”

“Just because HYDRA moved out, that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t moved in,” Natasha cautioned. 

“You’re right,” Steve said. “Agent Hill, hold your men back until the site is secured. Clint, Natasha, you think there’s enough cover for you to safely scout it out or should we go in hot and try to subdue them before they can get their bearings?”

“If they’re underground I guarantee they’ve got a healthy vent system,” Clint said. 

“We’ll be in and out with none the wiser, trust us Steve,” Natasha added.

Steve nodded. “Be careful and don’t hesitate to call us in if things go pear-shaped.” 

Tony helped Natasha and Clint disable the alarms on secret entrance below the old grain silo then joined the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. trio and Bruce Banner while the spies headed inside. “J.A.R.V.I.S., does anyone in this hicksville have their security camera saving footage to a server?”

“The bank, two liquor stores and a 7-Eleven, Sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. reported. 

“I shouldn’t stereotype, but let’s start with the liquor store footage,” Tony instructed. “See if anyone interesting has been hanging around town.”

“The liquor store would be your first stop,” Maria said. “Start with the 7-Eleven, in a town like this it’s likely the only place open after midnight, if this is a villain lair they’ve got 7-24 security, if the guards are human the night shift has been hitting the 7-Eleven for snacks on their breaks.”

“You heard the lady J.A.R.V.I.S.,” Tony said.

Several minutes later J.A.R.V.I.S. announced, “It seems Mr. Wilson is correct, this is not an active HYDRA base, however I have paired the security footage to mug shots of several individuals associated with the Serpent Society.” 

Steve’s comm crackled to life, “I count upwards of thirty grunts wearing the Serpent Society emblem and carrying heavy artillery,” Natasha reported. 

“I could have told you that,” Tony put in.

“If you don't have anything useful to say…” Steve reprimanded him. “Clint, what’s your count?”

“Another five mooks plus four costumes,” the archer said. “One of them’s a hottie but no one we've seen before- Shit, I'm made.”

“Iron Man, go through the ceiling. Get us to him and Nat, now” Steve ordered.

“Aye, aye mon Capitaine,” Tony said as his faceplate snapped down and he blasted off. A quick scan of the tracers in Clint and Natasha's comms overlaid with a sonar and IR map gave him a feel for the bases’ layout and the position of the players. Then he used a small missile to punch through the roof of the complex. Steve was first through the hole, hitting ground along with the last of the debris from the shattered ceiling. Thor was a moment behind him. Tony waited until the two of them had cleared the opening then cut thrusters and dropped through the opening as well.

The underground complex was a light with explosions as Clint fired arrow after arrow into the ground in front of the costumes while Natasha fought off a half-dozen thugs. “Damn! Why didn’t I have these on our last mission?” Clint exclaimed as he fired off another round. Tony decided to take it as a compliment on the arrows rather than a criticism that he hadn’t developed them sooner. 

Steve and Thor plowed into the four, snake-themed costumes, which gave Clint a chance to focus on taking down the growing crowd of minions harassing Natasha. Tony held back, surveying the battle for several moments before shooting off a series of repulsor blasts that caved in a tunnel, trapping fifteen of the minions away from the fighting. Clint's arrows made quick work of a half dozen more. Natasha had rendered four unconscious before Steve made his entry and took out another pair while Clint and Tony were taking their shots. She put down the last man with her signature leg-lock. “What a way to go,” Tony observed.

Natasha rolled her eyes then glanced over at Clint, “Thanks for the assist.” She studied the four costumes going up against Steve and Thor: A caped man with a large frill around his neck and an unfortunate mask. A man in green whose lower-body terminated in a snake tail, his arms were clawed prosthetics. A man wearing a mask that covered the top half of his face and supported a cobra like hood. And last, a woman in pink who held back from the fighting to target both Thor and Steve with throwing knives. 

“I've got the girl, so you boys don't have to feel guilty about hitting her,” Natasha said, deciding that the other team’s sniper should be a priority. Steve had his shield but Thor was simply shrugging off the small wounds caused by her knives and the woman was looking much too smug about the relatively minor damage she'd inflicted.

The half-snake man faced off against Steve, his artificial limbs matching Steve's enhanced strength while his snake-like locomotion played havoc with Steve's ability to read his attacks. The hooded man ducked under Thor's blow and managed to get both hands wrapped, with disturbing flexibility, around Thor's wrist to immobilize Mjolnir, turning their battle into a contest of strength. The man with the frilled collar stood back watching. ‘Mastermind’ Tony thought. He saw Clint targeting the man, the other two were too closely entwined with Steve and Thor respectively and even the best archer in the world couldn't predict how the rapid trading of blows might shift the fight and put the wrong person in the line of fire. Tony started toward Steve and the snake-man, judging Thor's situation to be more secure. An explosion engulfed the ledge where Frill stood. 

Then Frill appeared out of nowhere behind Thor and sent a jolt of electricity into the demi-god’s hand. Thor cried out as his hand spasmed and Mjolnir tumbled to the ground. Hooded snaked a foot behind Thor’s ankle, spilling him to the ground. As they fell together Frill teleported to where Natasha and Pink were trading blows. Natasha spun at the change in air pressure and managed to punch Frill solidly in the throat but wasn’t fast enough to completely block Pink’s thrown blade. A thin line of red appeared on Natasha’s cheek and she immediately felt a wave of dizziness. “Not going down that easy,” Natasha growled as she threw herself at Pink with a renewed determination. She kicked Pink into a wall and Clint pinned the woman there with a net arrow. 

When Frill appeared near Steve’s battle, Tony was expecting him. He swooped down, grabbed the teleporter around the waist and rocketed upward. As they approached the roof at rapid speed, suddenly Tony found himself halfway across the room and upside down. “Let’s see who loses their lunch first,” Tony challenged and sent the armor into a tight spin, locking his arms around the struggling teleporter. The pair of them blinked in and out around the room careening wildly from one near collision to the next until they dove, head first, into the floor. Laying flat on his back, Tony glanced over at Frill and saw the other man was bloody and unconscious. “I win,” he declared, trying to blink the spots out of his vision.

Without Pink sniping him Steve started getting the upper hand against Snake-man, using his shield to bash at the man’s prosthetics until his claw-like arms were nothing more than bent, sparking metal. 

Thor laughed as he and Hooded fought for the leverage to pin the other. The demi-god’s face was flushed, his eyes dilated and the small cuts from Pink’s knives leaked discolored blood. “Victory will be Thor’s Midgard Serpent!” he exclaimed jovially as he managed to free a hand to summon Mjolnir. With one hand on Hooded’s throat Thor pressed the man to the floor and raised his hammer as if to smash in his skull.

“Thor stop!” Steve exclaimed, far from the only Avenger disturbed by Thor’s murderous good humor.

Power crackled around the hammer and lightning filled cavernous room. “Fuck.” Tony swore spotting two teenager peering into the hole in the roof from where he lay on the ground. “Tony! Grab Clint!” Steve shouted as Thor’s lightning caught the archer, spending him tumbling from his perch. 

Tony lurched to his feet and blasted back toward the hole, grabbing the two teens and yanking them clear just as another lightning bolt answered Thor’s call. “No gawking! Run!” Tony shouted as he dropped the teens several meters from the mouth of the hole. 

“Tony!” Steve shouted even as he threw his shield at Clint. The impact knocked the stunned archer back from the precipice, audibly breaking several ribs in the process.

“Big guy, I think he’s down,” Natasha said, adopting her Hulk-calming tones as she staggered toward Thor. “The day’s won, no reason to bring the roof down on your shield-brothers, hmm?” 

Thor blinked at her then glanced at the charred corpse at his feet. “A glorious victory,” he said smiling. “We shall feast.” 

“Right after Clint and I get a little hospital time,” Natasha promised, leaning into Thor’s side. He lowered the hammer to offer her support. Both Steve and Natasha sighed in relief. 

“Everything alright there?” Bruce asked worriedly over the comms. 

“Fight’s over,” Steve confirmed. “Tell Stark and Agent Hill it’s time for them to get to work.”

“I think I might have a concussion,” Tony whined.

“You’re lucky Clint isn’t dead,” Steve replied angrily. 

Bruce joined Tony and the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents in retrieving data from the base. After several hours he noticed that Tony was leaning more heavily on J.A.R.V.I.S. to hack the base’s surviving servers than he normally would, staying in the suit even for tasks that would have been easier without it. “Tony? You okay?” he asked. 

“I’m great, in better shape than Clint,” Tony said shortly.

“That’s not-” Bruce began then sighed as he watched Tony stomp off. He reached for his comm. “Could everyone keep an on Tony,” he said. “I think he probably does have a concussion.”

“He really was hurt?” Steve asked guiltily.

Bruce grimaced, “There’s really not much to be done for it. I’d tell him to stay away from computer screens for a few hours but I know better than to expect him to listen to that sort of advice. Other than that the only thing we can really do is keep an eye on him.”

It took Steve several minutes to track Tony down but he eventually found him on the compound’s lowest level physically disconnecting HYDRA’s servers so they could be reviewed for additional information later. “I’m sorry,” Steve said. “I was angry, because you ignored my orders in the field the only way I had available to save Clint left him with broken ribs. I didn’t realize you were really hurt.”

“You notice the two lookie-loo kids?” Tony asked shortly. “Was I supposed to ignore them?”

“It’s hard,” Steve said. “I know it’s hard to make that sort of choice but collateral damage is going to happen in a battle.”

_“Collateral damage, Tony,” Obie said lifting a van full of kids over his head._

“You saved those two but Clint’s going to be out of commission for months who knows how many unnecessary casualties will happen because we’re a man down next time? We can’t save everyone, I know that’s horrible to say, but it’s the fact of the matter. And if we throw our lives, our teammates lives away trying, in the end we won’t save anyone.” 

“Fuck you Rogers,” Tony muttered shoving past the blond.

“Tony! You have to let a doctor look at you!” Steve grabbed Tony's arm and jerked him back.

Tony tried to pull free. “Missed your chance on that, now let go! It's Valentine’s, I have plans with Pepper and we're already going to be late for our reservation.”

Steve's expression took on a stubborn cast. “You're going to the doctor,” he stated and started hauling Tony after him.

Tony considered making use of the armor to really put up a fight but settled for just forcing Steve to drag the suit’s dead weight along with him.

Clint, Natasha and Thor were still in medical when they arrived. Clint's ribs were wrapped and there was an IV drip in Natasha's arm. Thor had a hangdog expression as he stood over Clint's bed. “My friend, I sincerely regret that I allowed my zest for battle to overcome my senses and place you in danger.”

Natasha patted Thor's forearm, “Not your fault. You were drugged.”

“Unlike some people,” Clint muttered glaring at Tony.

“Mr. Stark, I need you to take off your armor,” the nurse said.

“Nope, all that's left is packing up the servers, Maria's minions can take care of that. Pepper’s waiting so I'm signing myself out,” Tony declared.

“I said I was sorry for not believing you,” Steve exclaimed. “Stop being childish, Stark.”

“If I may,” J.A.R.V.I.S. interjected. “ I am monitoring sir’s vitals and Ms. Potts can also watch over him.”

“Don't you dare tattle on me to Pepper, Jay!” Tony exclaimed. “I've gotten worse from a bottle of scotch, no reason to worry her.”

“Don’t act like you’re the only one who’s Valentine's Day plans got shot out of the water,” Clint complained. “I’m sure Potts is used to you flaking on her.”

“What, missing a hot date with your hand?” Tony shot back. 

“What is this ‘Valentine’s Day’?” Thor queried.

“Oh, Thor buddy, you are in trouble,” Clint said pointedly ignoring Tony.

“You’re not leaving without a check up,” Steve declared planting himself in the door of the infirmary like a tree.

Tony sighed and released the catch on his helmet. When the helmet came free it revealed his hair was matted with blood from a long cut where the back of his head had been smashed against the armor in the crash. Catching sight of his reflection in the window Tony grimaced, “I guess a shower wouldn’t hurt before Pepper sees me.”

* * *

The sun was just rising in Malibu on the fifteenth when Tony stepped out of the armor. Pepper was curled up on the couch in his lab, fast asleep. Tony smiled and reached up to check that his hair was covering the stitches in his scalp. “You got it J?” he asked softly.

“All ready sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S. replied and one of the fabricating units slid open to reveal a deep red rose, the edges of the petals and and leaves gleamed gold.

Tony opened a drawer under his lab table and stared at a ring box for several seconds then he shut the drawer again, taking the whole previous day as a bad omen. ‘What was I thinking anyway, planning to propose to her on the same date that her last engagement crashed and burned?’ He took the rose and went to kneel in front of Pepper. “Hey, did you wait up for me?” he asked giving her shoulder a gentle shake to wake her.

Pepper yawned and blinked. After a moment her eyes focused on the rose. “Did you seriously gilde a rose for me?” she asked.

“You like it?”

“Tony, what am I supposed to do with a gold-plated rose?” Pepper asked.

Tony shrugged, “Put it in a vase? Add a little water. Isn’t that what you do when someone gives you flowers?”

Pepper shook her head, “Well, at least it fits through the door.” She leaned forward to kissed him then frowned when she noticed that one of his pupils was blown. “Do you have a concussion?”

“Just a little one,” Tony replied. “Took me forever to escape from Medical with Capsicle standing guard. Sorry, I really did want to spend Valentine’s with you.”

“Well, if Captain Rogers let you escape you must not be too hurt,” Pepper decided. She smiled teasingly, “And aren’t you worried about me ‘getting ideas’, what with it being Valentine’s?” 

“Given it’s you, they wouldn’t be the wrong ideas,” Tony said. 

Pepper tugged Tony over to curl up beside her on the couch. A few minutes later Dum-E came up carrying an oil can filled with water. “Thank you,” Pepper said, patting him on his boom as she accepted the offering and putting her rose in it.

“I was thinking about throwing a party for the Avengers in a few weeks, the next time we have a big win or some other excuse,” Tony said after a while. “I’ll invite Dr. Foster and it sounds like Clint might have a secret girlfriend. Give the three of us a chance to show off our significant others to the team. You’ll come right?”

Pepper’s face fell, “Tony, I can’t just drop everything. And what do I have in common with any of them, I'd be totally out of place.”

“What did you and Agent Phil talk about?” Tony challenged.

“Lawsuits against Stane's co-conspirators. Minimizing SI’s liability for your actions as Iron Man, of course that all went out the window when you decided to have the company fund the Avengers,” Pepper said dryly.

“Come on, what was I supposed to do with all the not-HYDRA, ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who fell in my lap?” Tony whined. “Toss them into the street?”

Pepper sighed, “I know and honestly I wouldn't have opposed the decision even if I'd had the chance to voice an opinion before it was fait accompli. But… I know how important Iron Man is to you, I know you're doing good things and I want to be supportive but-”

“But what?”

“I'm never going to be okay with the thought of you not coming home. I'm trying to have faith in your abilities and your team.” Pepper swallowed harshly, “That if the worst happens you'll have died for something you passionately believe in. But weren’t we happy without Iron Man before you got dragged back in by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fall? Captain Rogers has a history with HYDRA but they’re simple terrorists, is this really something the Avengers should be handling over official government agencies?”

“They’re HYDRA,” Tony argued. “The crazy, extremist end of the _Nazi_ party.” 

“I know how much you hated talking to a psychiatrist but I think it really helped,” Pepper continued. “You finally told me about what happened in Afghanistan, about Yinsen. I- I thought the PTSD was getting better. Back in the beginning maybe, Iron Man was a way for you to- to cope with the survivor’s guilt. But lately -you were getting better- but since you rebuilt the suit, I- I can’t help but see shadows are back in your eyes.” 

“There's so much I have to make up for,” Tony said. “So many dead because of me.”

“I didn't see what Stane was up to either,” Pepper said shifting closer to Tony. “Nearly twenty years working beside him and I didn't see him for the murderous bastard for what he was. Would you stand by and watch me bleed to atone for that?”

“It wasn't your responsibility.”

“He was your dad’s friend. The person he chose to look after SI, after your future while you were too young to do it. You should have been able to trust him,” Pepper argued. “I didn't have that blind spot and I still didn't see. Not until I was watching a video of your kidnappers complaining that he hadn't paid more for your murder.”

“It's not just Ob- Stane,” Tony protested. “ The things I made killed so many people, ruined uncountable lives-”

“Would you let Rhodey do this to himself?”

“It's different!” Tony exclaimed.

“He fired the missiles you made.”

“He risks his life, I just made money off it!”

“You made weapons that would have just sat in a box doing nothing without someone willing to use them. Rhodey, the military at large, wouldn't turn them on other people without the government’s backing. And our government doesn’t go out and randomly start wars-”

“People died! That didn't just spontaneously happen, they were killed!” Tony's voice rose precipitously. “We dilute responsibility until no one and everyone is to blame! Until no one has to own it. And people just keep being killed. Someone has to be responsible!”

“Why you?” Pepper asked. “Why you and none of the others?”

Tony sank tiredly in the couch beside Pepper. “Because I can change. Because I was ready- No, I _needed_ to change.”

“When will it be enough?” Tears ran down Pepper’s cheeks. “When will you forgive yourself? When you've single-handedly ended war? Death itself?” 

Tony buried his hand in her hair, holding her tight against him. 

He remembered Natasha catching him on the way out of medical a few hours earlier. _“Do you have any idea of the odds against what Steve did actually working? It’s a miracle Clint only has broken ribs and not a broken neck,” the redheaded spy spat. “You need to get over your ego Stark. In the field you can’t just run off every time you and Steve disagree about the right course of action. You need to understand how a team works. We need to be able to count you to be there for us. You need to decide, once and for all, if this whole Iron Man thing is about helping people or if it’s about satisfying your narcissism.”_

“Should have done better,” Tony mumbled. “Grabbed Clint on the way up maybe.”

“What?” Pepper asked twisting to face him.

“Nothing,” Tony said. “It’s just when I’m out there, as Iron Man, I can’t help but see how much more I need to be doing to be worth Yinsen’s sacrifice,” Tony said quietly. 

Pepper’s hand slid across Tony’s chest to rest on the spot where the Arc Reactor had been. “The person you told me about? I can’t imagine he’d want to watch you tear yourself apart trying to fix… Everything! The whole world! ...anymore than I do. Not wasting your life doesn’t mean martyring yourself, Tony. But sometimes I’m scared that’s the only way you’ll let yourself believe that you’ve done enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that’s five. I’d also considered Tony and Pepper’s separation pre-Civil War and the first Valentines day after Tony’s death. But since the point of the format is limiting yourself to five they didn’t make the cut. Elsewhere I’ve said that the separation was triggered by Tony giving Pepper weapons disguised as jewelry and telling her about a new bunch of threats against his life when she was coming to tell him that she was pregnant leading to her freaking out and distancing herself from Tony. With Nettie’s birthday being in December that sets Pepper learning that she was pregnant in the March-April timeframe.
> 
> I also liked the symmetry of starting with Tony explaining to Pepper why he doesn’t do Valentine’s and finishing with him recognizing that those reasons don’t apply to her. 
> 
> The first year after Civil War could have fit as the plus one but I’d rather have a triumphant plus one than a depressing one (even though I’m going to hold off on posting it until “Two Steps Behind” is done).


	6. February 14, 2022 - Family

Tony watched, mesmerized by the way the candle light caught on the gems set in Pepper’s hair as she spoke animatedly about the Board’s reception of Peter and Harley’s latest project for SI’s biomedical branch. “Even Hendricks looked enthused and he hasn’t been enthusiastic about anything since SI got out of the weapons business.”

“Hendricks? Seriously?” Tony asked absently as he reached in his pocket to check on the ring. His hand encountered the Avengers pager he carried as well as the ring box. “What do you think FRIDAY and Amadeus have gotten up to?” he asked. After their last vacation he’d pre-emptively put the Avengers on yellow alert for this one.

“Well, there’s always the Lost City of Patagonia or Paititi,” Pepper said. “But I don’t think they can top rediscovering Atlantis.”

“And nearly starting a war with their thin-skinned, asshole of a king five minutes later,” Tony agreed. “It was totally Namor’s fault by the way.”

“Still not a shining moment for the two of them in the opinion of the Accords Committee,” Pepper said. Then she laughed, “After all Harley’s determination to make sure we had romantic night to ourselves, here we are talking about the kids.”

Tony smiled, _‘No reason to be nervous. She’s going to say ‘yes’. This is just a formality.’_ He remember years past when he would have considered it necessary to fly her to some exotic location, gold-plate a rose… Or alternatively, attempted to cook dinner himself instead of calling a caterer. _‘Pepper would have had the fire department on standby if I told her I was cooking dinner for her… Probably the ER too.’_

One thing he’d figured out talking to Doc Samson had been that he didn’t have to make huge, extravagant gestures just because he had the money. Howard, having spent most his life fighting to prove that he belonged in the class he’d worked his way into, had been more than slightly class-conscious. As much as Tony had hated it as a kid, when it manifested in reminders that Jarvis and Ana were their servants, paid to take care of Tony. That had hurt, even when Jarvis assured him that no one could or needed to pay them to care about him. In spite of that, Howard’s class consciousness had been passed on to Tony in the form of feeling that his every gesture had to be extravagant. And somewhere along the way of working through why he thought the way he did things like a candle-lit dinner at home, catered because he liked explosions too much to trust himself with an oven, stopped being something Tony worried over being either too little or too much. It was something that both he and Pepper would enjoy. It was a space where he could propose to Pepper without having it end up splashed across tabloids from New York to Tokyo...

Vision, now thirteen as best as they had been able to determine, floated up through the floor, his lips tightly pursed and his arms crossed sulkily over his chest. 

… It was close by, just in case Harley had been overly optimistic when he insisted that he was an Avenger, he could handle babysitting three - _”Two, I am quite mature enough to not require a minder,” Vision insisted_ \- Enhanced younger siblings.

Pepper and Tony glanced at each other and smiled ruefully. “What’s going on Viz?” Tony asked.

“Loptr is being a brat, again!” Vision announce crossly. “Ze is not following the rules and Harley is - is ineffective! It was not as if I would want to play childish games anyway, I have more important things to do. But ze is not supposed to attempt to ostracize me.” Then added in a betrayed voice, “And Nettie allowed it! As did DUM-E, U and Butterfingers! I expect better from the three of them!”

Pepper leaned over and blew out the candles. 

“Let’s go straighten this out,” Tony said steering Vision toward the elevator with an arm around his shoulders. 

The inclusion of the bots told Tony that the miscreants were most likely holed up in his lab and sure enough when they arrived at the basement level Harley was outside the door in the process of setting up one of the Avengers’ anti-magic devices. “Ze stopped me from phasing through the walls,” Vision added to his list of grievances.

“A little extreme?” Tony asked Harley as he walked past him. He activated the intercom, “Loptr, this is Tony. Open the door.”

“I tried that, it doesn’t work,” Harley groused.

Tony started counting down from ten in his head, at one the door unsealed to reveal a guilty looking Loptr. 

In the background Nettie was standing on the Butterfinger’s table while spraying WD40 into the bot’s joints. U and DUM-E were also clustered around the table, there were chairs pulled up for Loptr and Nettie. Each place setting had a thimble sized tea cup and a tiny dish. U reached out and moved a small teapot before Nettie could kick it over when she stretched to reach another of Butterfinger’s joints. “U!” the five year old scolded, “No elbows on the table!” U responded with an aggrieved protest that DUM-E rebuked with a whistle and U straightened his posture carefully. 

Tony glanced over his shoulder at Pepper, wondering if Loptr was in female form because of thinking tea parties were a girl thing. The mind healers from Jotunheim that they’d spoken with had told them it was not healthy for a natural born shapeshifter to base too much of their identity on something as malleable as physical form. But they didn’t want zim shifting genders based on what society deemed girl-things or boy-things, It was important for Loptr to understand that Loptr was Loptr regardless of form. On the other hand, Loptr had adopted a form that had black hair and Jotun scarification along with Tony’s skin tones, Pepper’s eyes, much like Nettie had… And Vision’s nose. Tony wanted to consider it a good sign that Loptr was including Vision in one of zer ‘family resemblance’ looks. 

“Loptr, Nettie, guys what’s family rule number one?” Tony asked calmly.

“We don’t shun each other,” Loptr mumbled scuffing a foot on the floor.

“Right,” Tony said. “We don’t set up a game where one member of the family is locked out of the room.” He and Pepper had been told that after decades of being the bad one, the lesser child in his family it wasn’t unusual that Loptr would attempt to assure zirself of zir security in zir new family by trying to make someone else the unfavorite. “So how about you ask us all to play?”

Loptr stole an ashamed glance in Vision’s direction as ze took a deep breathe and asked, “Nettie wanted to have a tea party. Does anyone else want to join us?”

“We’d all be happy to,” Pepper said.

Which was how they all ended up pulling up chairs and squeezing around Butterfinger’s table drinking or pretending to drink apple juice from cups the vanished in a grown person’s hand depending on the presence or absence of a mouth. Somewhere along the way Loptr switched to zir full Jotunn form. Nettie presided happily. Harley made them all swear that they wouldn’t tell Mercedes since he’d adamantly refused to play tea party with her when she’d been Nettie and Loptr’s ages and she would have her vengeance if she found out. Vision lost the hurt sulky look he’d had since his appearance in Tony and Pepper’s suite while he helped the bots discreetly dispose of their untouched apple juice so Nettie could offer refills. Pepper found some cute little chocolates to go with their ‘tea’ and subtly directed the kids, Harley included, to practice making polite small talk. Tony quickly caught on and started helping her coach them in the society games that being his kids meant they’d have to learn to negotiate. 

They were finishing up the third round of chocolates, Happy and Marlena had just gotten back from their show, when a thought crossed Loptr’s mind, ze turned to Tony with wide, horrified eyes. “Did I interrupt you asking Pepper?” 

“Not again,” Happy groaned to himself from the doorway.

“How’d you find out about that?” Tony muttered and suddenly all of his kids current present were sporting patently innocent expressions.

“Ask me what?” Pepper asked.

Tony turned toward her like a deer in the spotlight. “Er…. I had this whole plan,” he said digging the ring box out of his pocket. “I thought it was a pretty good one, much better than the one that involved renting the Philharmonic. Hammer’s daughter messed that one up. She’s almost a competent villain, must be her mother-“

“Yes!” Pepper interrupted.

Tony blinked at her, “Yes?”

“Yes,” Pepper repeated.

Tony grinned and recovered himself enough to smoothly slip the ring on her hand, dropping a kiss on her knuckles in the process.

Loptr sagged in relief.

“Mommy! You shouldn’t interrupt,” Nettie scolded. “Daddy was talking.”

“I think we can forgive it this time,” Harley snickered.

Tony tugged Pepper closer, she melted into his side and they kissed.

DUM-E and U turned to high-five the nearest person while Butterfingers tried to beep a triumphant fanfare.

The next morning, bright and early, the phone calls started coming in. Roberta and David, who’d left for a cruise earlier that week were the first, “Did you ask her?” Roberta demanded barely waiting for Tony to get a hello out.

“She said yes,” Tony replied.

“The girls woke me up at the crack of dawn for this,” Hank groused ten minutes later. “You’d better have asked her.”

“Pepper said yes,” Tony said and heard Mercedes and Cassie cheering in the background. 

“Tell Pepper I’m coming by later to see the ring,” Hope called over the shouting. 

Pepper leaned over Tony’s shoulder to speak into the phone, “You’re one of my bridesmaids,” she told the other CEO.

The next number to pop up on Tony’s phone was Peter’s, “Did you ask her?” Peter asked.

“Is there anyone who didn’t know?” Tony demanded. “And why aren’t you more distracted by Gwen’s news?”

“That’s supposed to be a secret!” Peter exclaimed. “It’s bad luck to say anything before the second trimester… Besides, I’ve known about that for weeks. Seriously, don’t say anything! We haven’t told May yet. You’re not supposed to know about that!” 

FRIDAY and Amadeus came back around mid morning, “Did you ask?”

“Did you two discover another lost continent?”

“Only a lost Roman Colony this time,” FRIDAY said. “I’m reviewing the tapes… Okay, you didn’t quite ask but Mom said yes anyway. I’m declaring victory.” 

Rhodey was the last to call. “Did you ask her?”

“Is anyone going to bother to ask what her answer was?” Tony demanded.

“Nope,” May said. “She said yes, no question.” 

“Now you’ve done it, I’m sure you two are together and not just trolling the rest of us,” Tony crowed.

“I borrowed May from Pepper for the Chitauri-Nova Empire summitt,” Rhodey said smugly. “You said it yourself: If they normalize relations Earth’s the main oasis on a new Silk Road, if they renew hostilities we’re a far flung outpost for two empires to fight over. I’m mediating and this is too important for anything less than the best. May is the best aide I could have. And some people do get up before eleven to start working.” 

“I don’t buy it, you’re totally together.”

“So you say,” May said with a smile in her voice. “I guess that means you won’t try fixing either of us up again?”

“You’re an evil woman, May Parker,” Tony laughed, “And I sincerely hope you and my platypus are dating.”

Pepper borrowed the phone, via catching Tony’s hand and pulling it to her cheek. “Once you’re done with intergalactic politics schedule a meeting for you, me, Marlena, FRIDAY and Hope. I don’t want you three looking like matched dolls but I’d like the colors and styles to be complementary. Then we’ll tell Rhodey, Happy, Harley and Tony what they’re wearing. Nettie, Loptr and Vision can be ring bearers or flower people depending on their preference. Tony and I will have to talk about how to include the bots. DUM-E and U would get a kick out of joining the kids but the guests might not appreciate having their toes run over and Butterfingers would feel left out.”

“Hey, you’re supposed to let me pick my groomsmen!” Tony protested. 

“Am I wrong?” Pepper asked.

“Well, you’re supposed to wait until after we’re married to start reading my mind,” Tony argued. 

“Tony, you’ve been the center of my life for almost thirty years,” Pepper laughed. “If I don’t know you by now, marrying you won’t help.” 

“So what’s the point?” Tony tried to sound like he was making a joke.

“It’s a promise worth making,” Pepper said. “Important for me every bit as much as for you. I’m not particularly religious but, I think, saying it in front of our friends and family matters. Promising each other that… That you’re done trying protect me by keeping me uninformed. And that _I’m_ done running when things get outside of my comfort zone.”

“That we’re together for good,” Tony agreed. “Definitely a promise worth making.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Distorted View](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11201148) by [Kizmet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet)




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